George Wither Selected Poetry
William Browne(of Tavistock)Pastoral Poetry
J. R. TutinHull
Nicholas Breton
Thou that wouldst find the habit of true passion,And see a mind attired in perfect strains ...Look here on Breton's work.--BEN JONSON.
George Wither
William Browne
I feel an envious touch,And tell thee Swain: that at thy fame I grutch,Wishing the Art that makes this Poem shine,And this thy Work (wert not thou wronged) mine.
Words in this poem
- breton a.
- Of or relating to Brittany, or Bretagne, in France. [F. breton.]
- attired p. p.
- Provided with antlers, as a stag.
- envious a.
- Malignant; mischievous; spiteful. [OF. envios, F. envieux, fr. L. invidiosus, fr. invidia envy. See Envy, and cf. Invidious.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
George Wither Selected Poetry is in the public domain. This text is taken from Pastoral Poems by Nicholas Breton, Selected Poetry by George Wither, and Pastoral Poetry by William Browne (of Tavistock), Project Gutenberg ebook #22001; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Nicholas Breton, George Wither Selected Poetry, in Pastoral Poems and Selected Poetry (1597–1604), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22001, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/breton-poems/george-wither-selected-poetry.html, id L08826.
Form and metre
George Wither Selected Poetry is 15 lines in 7 stanzas. 85% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.3 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 47% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 7 AABB touchA · grutchA · shineB · mineB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| William Browne | 3 | /˘· |
| (of Tavistock) | 4 | ···· |
| Pastoral Poetry | 6 | /˘˘/˘˘ |
| J. R. Tutin | 4 | ···· |
| Hull | 1 | · |
| Nicholas Breton | 5 | /˘˘/˘ |
| Thou that wouldst find the habit of true passion, | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| And see a mind attired in perfect strains ... | 10 | ····˘/·˘/· |
| Look here on Breton's work.--BEN JONSON. | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| George Wither | 3 | ·/˘ |
| William Browne | 3 | /˘· |
| I feel an envious touch, | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| And tell thee Swain: that at thy fame I grutch, | 10 | ·········· |
| Wishing the Art that makes this Poem shine, | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| And this thy Work (wert not thou wronged) mine. | 9 | ········· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.